International SEO in Complex Scenarios

@fernandomacia
FERNANDO MACIÁ
How to Do
International SEO
in Complex
Scenarios
@fernandomacia

I publish…
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I speak at national/international events…

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International SEO: The challenges

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‣ Understand the motivations &
objections of international
audience

‣ Adapt to local use of language
(even in countries where same
language is spoken)

‣ Use international targeting and
rel=“alternate”/hreflang
Minimize
duplicate content risk

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‣ Even if a user can browse the site
from a certain country with multiple
languages, focus on indexing and
positioning just the one with
significant potential
Optimize crawl budget

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‣ Concentrate internal juice flow
on your most valuable pages
(those with highest
PV*conversion*profit values)
Optimize link juice

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‣ Does not matter whether you use ccTLDs,
subdomains or subdirectories:

‣ use just one GA UA and analyze
traffic from multiple profiles/filters

‣ On multiple domains, use cross-
domain GA tracking script

‣ Tag the links between ccTLDs to
keep session info
Make web traffic
analysis easier

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International SEO: The goal

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‣ Position your best possible content
for each international user

‣ Language

‣ Motivations/objections

‣ Currency

‣ Product selection

‣ Logistics…

‣ To get the best CTR/quality of visit/
conversion
Optimize country
&/or language targeting

@fernandomacia
YES. Position the optimal
content (language,
currency…)
Keep certain SE (Baidu, Yandex,
etc.) from indexing (via robots.txt)
Decision diagram for international SEO targeting
13
STOP
YES. Position the default
content for the rest of the
users
YES. Position content in
other popular 2nd
languages
YES. Position
content in the right
language
YES
YES
YES
YES
NO
NO
NO
NO
© Fernando Maciá
Do we have a
default content for users we are not
targeting?
Do we have content in
a language the user, at least, might
understand?
Do we
have content in the user’s
language?
Do we have speciﬁc content for the
user language and location?
IP geolocation/OS
language/cookieVISIT

@fernandomacia14
So…
Which landing track
will your user find?

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On users’ side….

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16
Search user
geolocation
‣ With over 75% of searches coming
from mobile, user geolocation,
search history and “local” search
intent will affect the SERPs

@fernandomacia
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User’s Google
preferences
‣ With over 75% of searches
coming from mobile, user
geolocation, search history and
“local” search intent will affect the
SERPs

@fernandomacia
18
Google.cctld
Italia
Japan
Deutschland
España
Suisse
Italia
UK
used
‣ Google local domain or using
different SE (Baidu, Seznam,
Yandex…)

@fernandomacia19
On our side…

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20
hreflang
configuration
‣ Useful as a suggestion of
language or language/country
alternative content for a URL

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‣ Useful when used coherently
associated to rel=“alternate/
hreflang” configuration
21
International targeting
configuration on GSC

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Link profile geolocation
22
‣ hreflang is a signal, not a
directive: boost your geolocation
with a coherently geodistributed
link profile

@fernandomacia
Hosting IP geolocation
23
with CDNwithout CDN
Hosting IP is relevant Hosting IP is not relevant

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Fetch as Googlebot is not reliable
24
‣ Caution: since 2015, Googlebot
may come from non-USA-located
IPs, and so…

@fernandomacia
Check server’s customization configuration
25
spain.info on
Google’s cache
spain.info

from Spain
IP customization

@fernandomacia
Use Web Sniffer+HMA to check IP/User agent
customization
26
Web Sniffer HMA VPN
Use HMA VPN to browse from
diﬀerent locations to check for IP
customization
Add Googlebot’s user-
agent strings to check
for UA customization

@fernandomacia
User-agent customization using WS+HMA
27
User-agent=Web Sniffer User-agent= Googlebot
IP=USA (Dallas, Tx.) IP=USA (Dallas, Tx.)
302 200
URL=http://as.com URL=http://as.com

@fernandomacia28
From theory to practice:

some application scenarios…

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spain.info
‣ Official Web site of Spain Tourism in TLD

‣ Gradually growing up 38 different versions in
10 languages

‣ Worked on this site from 2005 to 2013

‣ Remember:

– GWT launched in 2006

– HREFLANG was introduced in dec.
2011

– x-default was introduced in april 2013
29

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Spain.info: institutional content web site
30
home

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31
language
targeting
home

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language
targeting
home
country/
language
targeting

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language
targeting
home
country
targeting,
content partially
in English
country/
language
targeting

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Spain.info: basic configuration
34
Xxxxxx
/fr/
hreflang="fr"
France
/fr_CH/
hreflang=“fr-CH"
Suisse
/de_CH/
hreflang=“de-CH"
Belgigue
/fr_BE/
hreflang=“fr-BE"

@fernandomacia
Spain.info - Home page
Dynamic HTML/IP geolocation
35
home Dynamic HTML IP geolocation
canonical: http://www.spain.info/es/
canonical: http://www.spain.info/en-US/

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36
URL: http://www.spain.info URL: http://www.spain.info
Canonicals
specify the URL
we want indexed
as home page for
each version

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37
hreﬂang specify
the URL we want
indexed for each
language/
country
combination of
the home page

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hreflang configuration
38
URL: http://www.spain.info/en_US/
<link rel="alternate"
href="http://www.spain.info/en_US/"
hreflang=“en-US"/>
URL: http://www.spain.info/de_CH/
href=“http://www.spain.info/de_CH/"
hreflang=“de-CH”/>
Use hreﬂang for language AND
country targeting

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hreflang configuration
39
URL: http://www.spain.info/fr/
href=“http://www.spain.info/fr/"
hreflang=“fr”/>
URL: http://www.spain.info/es/
href="http://www.spain.info/es/"
hreflang=“es"/>
Caution: hreflang cannot be used for country targeting-only
Use hreﬂang for language-only
targeting

@fernandomacia
Spain.info - international targeting for each
subdirectory from Google Search Console
40
URL: http://www.spain.info/de_CH/
Conﬁgure International Targeting on
GSC to target the right country
URL: http://www.spain.info/en_US/

@fernandomacia
Spain.info - international targeting for each
subdirectory from Google Search Console
41
URL: http://www.spain.info/fr/ URL: http://www.spain.info/es/
Don’t conﬁgure International Targeting
on GSC for language targeting

@fernandomacia
A coherent hreflang configuration and international
targeting on GSC yields the most predictable results
42
<link rel="alternate" href=“http://www.spain.info/en/" hreflang=“en”/>
If your are not targeting a
country, leave this blank
AND don’t include
the country code in
hreﬂang/alternate
URL: http://www.spain.info/en/

@fernandomacia
A coherent hreflang configuration and international
targeting on GSC yields the most predictable results
43
<link rel="alternate" href=“http://www.spain.info/en_IE/“ hreflang=“en-IE”/>
AND DO include the
country code in hreﬂang/
alternate
URL: http://www.spain.info/en_IE/
If you are targeting a
country, conﬁgure
international targeting

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Suisse
Results: Spain.info on the SERPs
44
Google indexes
the right page for
the right
Google.cctld/user
location/user
language
preferences

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45
France
Google indexes
the right page for
the right
Google.cctld/user
location/user
language
preferences

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46
UK
Google indexes not
always positions the
right page for the
right Google.cctld/
user location/user
language preferences

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rel=alternate/hreflang is a signal, not a directive
47

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Spain.info after hreflang implementation
48
Before After
/de_DE/
/de/

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49
Before After
/fr_FR/
/fr/

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50
Before After
/en_CA/
/en/

@fernandomacia51
‣ Some common mistakes….

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Some common mistakes…
52
Using Wikipedia as a
“reliable” source for
hreﬂang conﬁguration

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rel=alternate/hreflang should always point to
canonical URLs
53

@fernandomacia
hreflang MUST point to canonical URLs and do
not mix canonicals with hreflang and mobile alts
54
URL: http://www.domain.com/es/
URL: http://m.domain.com/es/
These are wrong
because they point to
non-canonical URLs

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URL: http://m.domain.com/es/
hreflang MUST point to canonical URLs
55
URL: http://www.domain.com/es/
This is the only
rel=“alternate” needed to
reference the mobile URL
(but no hreﬂang)

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x-default MUST point to IP redirecting or lang
selection pages
56
x-default is for IP
redirecting or
language selection
pages

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Summing up (home page)…
57
http://www.domain.tld/es/
href=“http://www.domain.tld/fr/" hreflang=“fr”/>
href=“http://www.domain.tld/es/" hreflang=“es”/>
href=“http://www.domain.tld/en/" hreflang=“en”/>
href=“http://www.sdomain.tld/en-US/“ hreflang=“en-US”/>
href=“http://www.domain.tld/fr-BE/“ hreflang=“fr-BE”/>
<link rel=“alternate" media=”only screen and (max-width: 640px)”
href=“http://m.domain.tld/es/“ />
<link rel="canonical"
href=“http://www.domain.tld/es/“ />
Include rel=“canonical”
Include hreflang to itself
Include hreflang to rest of language-targeted versions
Incluye hreflang al resto de versiones de país
Include rel=“alternate” to mobile version
href=“http://www.domain.tld/" hreflang=“x-default”/>
Include hreflang to rest of country-targeted versions
Include rel=“canonical” to desktop version
This is the only
rel=“canonical” needed
to reference the
desktop URL from the
mobile version (but no
hreﬂang!)
Use x-default to signal
a default landing home
page (not on every
page)

@fernandomacia
Summing up (home page)…
58
http://www.domain.tld/es/
href=“http://www.domain.tld/fr/" hreflang=“fr”/>
href=“http://www.domain.tld/es/" hreflang=“es”/>
href=“http://www.domain.tld/en/" hreflang=“en”/>
href=“http://www.sdomain.tld/en-US/“ hreflang=“en-US”/>
href=“http://www.domain.tld/fr-BE/“ hreflang=“fr-BE”/>
href=“http://m.domain.tld/es/“ />
Incluye hreflang al resto de versiones de país
href=“http://www.domain.tld/" hreflang=“x-default”/>
This is the only
to reference the
hreﬂang!)
Use x-default to signal
a default landing home
page (not on every
page)

@fernandomacia
Summing up (internal pages)…
59
http://www.domain.tld/es/colores.html
href=“http://www.domain.tld/fr/couleurs.html” hreflang=“fr”/>
href=“http://www.domain.tld/es/colores.html” hreflang=“es”/>
href=“http://www.domain.tld/en/colours.html” hreflang=“en”/>
href=“http://www.sdomain.tld/en-US/colors.html“ hreflang=“en-US”/>
href=“http://m.domain.tld/es/colores.html“ />
href=“http://www.domain.tld/es/colores.html“ />
href=“http://www.domain.tld/es/colores.html“ />
href=“http://www.domain.tld/fr-BE/couleurs.html“ hreflang=“fr-BE”/>
This is the only
to reference the
hreﬂang!)

@fernandomacia
Key take-aways
60
‣ International versions on TLD subdirectories generally yield best
results
‣ x-default must point to IP redirecting or language selection pages only

‣ If you have country/language targeted subdirectories, you should also have
language-only targeted subdirectories (not country targeted) as a default
for not-geolocated users

‣ Do not mix rel=“alternate” link elements for mobile content with
rel=“alternate/hreflang” for international targeting

‣ Beware: hreflang is just a signal. Give your country-targeted versions a
boost with a properly geodistributed link profile, IA jerarchy AND content
localization

@fernandomacia61
And… what problem is there with the
home page?

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Pre-home page with a language/country selector

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Pros: configuration of product portfolio, currency,
prices, applicable taxes, shipping options…
63
https://www.zara.com/es/https://www.zara.com/

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Pros: the user’s next visits to our website will
direct them to the correct version
64
https://www.zara.com/

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Pros: equal distribution of popularity juice
between the many different home versions
65

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Cons: we are somehow wasting our most
powerful URL address’ strength
66

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Cons: it adds an extra click for users visiting our
page for the first time
67

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Cons: cookie-dependent navigation may cause
indexability problems
68
https://www.zara.com/
Cuidado si haces
depender la navegación
del valor de una cookie.
Googlebot NO acepta
cookies.

@fernandomacia
When is it recommended to use this option?
69
‣ When our audience is very fragmented between many
different countries and there isn’t a country that concentrates
a significantly greater share of our demand.

‣ When language and country variables are crucial for the
personalisation of the offer: available product families,
currency, prices, shipping options, applicable taxes, etc.

‣ When brand awareness among users reduces the usual
organic traffic proportion, and the dependence upon good
rankings for generic search queries is inferior.

‣ When the domain authority is high, so that even if our root
domain’s popularity juice is distributed into multiple
subdirectories, the brand still holds an advantage over its
competitors.

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Which aspects should we take into consideration?
70
‣ We should set the “default” content that search engines can
crawl in the absence of cookies and session variables.

‣ We must keep in consideration the effect of the personalisation
settings the server could input, based on the IP address of origin
or the user-agent of the browser. It shouldn’t get in the way of the
search engine bots.

‣ We must configure the alternate/hreflang link element in the
different versions of the home page (only there), pointing to the
root domain with an “x-default” option (besides the
corresponding alternate/hreflangs to the home pages of all versions).

‣ We must include alternate/hreflang link elements at the root
domain, pointing to the home page of each version, besides the
self-referential alternate/hreflang link.

@fernandomacia71
Home page with a preferred language or
language/country by default

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Pros: our most profitable market on our strongest
URL
72

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Pros: shortens the click distance for our most
valuable clients
73
http://www.apple.com/iphone-7/http://www.apple.com/

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Pros: no cookies needed means fewer problems
for SE crawlers
74
http://www.apple.com/

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Cons: depending on the default language, it can
be challenging to select the right version
75
For some users, it
might not be obvious
where the version
selector is

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Cons: it is easy for users to compare prices for
the same item between versions
76

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77
‣ When one of the markets we cater to
concentrates a large share of the total
demand, so it is worth prioritising the
positioning of one particular version over all the
available ones.

‣ When we want to corporately identify a
website with one country in particular, as the
place of origin of a company or the national
ownership of an institution.

@fernandomacia
78
‣ There are no problems when it comes to crawlability
of the website in the absence of cookies or session
variables.

‣ It is not recommended to configure any alternate/
hreflang link elements with the “x-default” option of
default content. However, we could provide default
content directories in every language, to which we can
direct users whose countries don’t have a specific
version.

@fernandomacia79
Personalised content (IP, OS/UA language
preferences…)
http://www.spain.info/

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Pros: better user experience
80
http://www.spain.info/

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Cons: difficult to control how search engines will
crawl the website
81
cache:http://www.spain.info/

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Cons: when including dynamic canonicals, the
root domain might not get indexed
82

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Cons: risk of duplicate content getting indexed
83
http://www.spain.info/en_US/ http://www.spain.info/

@fernandomacia
84
‣ When our top priority is user experience and
the website is supported by other means of
traffic generation, making the weight of organic
search traffic over the total traffic only relative.

‣ If we choose to implement dynamic
canonical link elements, the root domain
URL won’t be indexed, and the behaviour in
this case will be exactly as described in the next
scenario.

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85
‣ Check the content that the server will display by default
when it can’t find the required variables to personalise
the content, as this is what Google will see

‣ Possible case of content indexed in several languages
under the same URL (as a result of several visits by
Googlebot from IP addresses geolocated in different
countries)

‣ Recommended to include a dynamic canonical link
element pointing to the canonical URL corresponding
to each different case

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Non-indexable URL on the root domain (IP/UA
redirecting home page)
86

@fernandomacia
Non-indexable URL on the root domain (IP/UA
redirecting home page)
87

@fernandomacia
Pros: better user experience
88
https://www.tous.com/
https://www.tous.com/us-en/ https://www.tous.com/fr/ https://www.tous.com/es-es/

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Cons: the root domain will not get indexed so we
somehow lose the most authorative URL
89

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90
‣ When we don’t want to prioritise a
specific version over the rest.

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A tener en cuenta
91
‣ If we personalise redirections on the home page to
redirect users towards the subdirectory corresponding
to their IP and/or language, then these redirections
should be 301.

‣ Alternatively, and if we wanted any of these versions
to be identified as the default version, this
redirection (and just this one) could be 302. In that
case, the canonical link element of the home page of
this subdirectory and corresponding links should
point to the root domain.

@fernandomacia
Wrapping up…
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‣ Some times, there is just not an “obvious” best international SEO
implementation.

‣ When testing all these behaviours server-side, tools like HMA! VPN y HTTP
Sniffer come in very handy, as they enable us to check server
personalisation configuration based on:

‣ IP
‣ OS/UA language preferences
‣ User-Agent
‣ Analyse each possible scenario, the aspects we should prioritise in
every case, and consider the demands of our technological
infrastructure, in order to choose the most appropriate option for our
home page
‣ Boost your international targeting with geolocated popularity profile

‣ Check the SERPs to confirm whether Google is understanding your
implementation

Fernando Maciá Domene
@fernandomacia
CEO
Human Level Communications

International SEO in Complex Scenarios

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